Those of you who spent your Saturday night glued to the boob-tube may have seen a mysterious talis on the tele-waves. No, you weren’t drunk. Anne Hathway hosted Saturday Night Live this week, and one of the skits boasted a talis as a wall hanging. In case you don’t want to sit through an otherwise dull segment, the beloved ritual item makes an appearance around 2:20. The wall-hanging (on the far right) has the fringes of a talis, the stripes of a talis, and the length of a talis. Walks like a duck, talks like a duck…?
Why would SNL use a talis as skit-decor? Is a precious ritual object of the jewish faith now just a marker of tacky working-class decor? What is the entertainment world telling us right before season of the most holy of Jewish-non-Jewish consumer treaties: Chrismukkah time? Or are the Elders of Zion so hard-up that they’re resorting to placing talises in SNL skits? Which leads me to my next question: Is Lorne Michaels an Elder of Zion?
